A few weeks passed with me doing monotonous things. I went back to work a few days after I recovered, and I was very surprised by what I achieved. I forgot the time when I lifted and crushed a lot of trees when I fought Logan, and I just realized that those trees were heavy as hell. My telekinesis jumped from being able to lift 15 kilograms to 30 kilograms. What's more, I discovered that I can barely levitate myself off the ground, albeit for only a few seconds. It's still progress though.
I planned on studying dueling after I mastered my currently incomplete skills, and I'm not thinking of making some more. Maybe after a few more years? I don't know.
Anyway, I have nearly perfected my Restorarmus spell after I used myself as my first subject in my fight against the Grim. My organs and wounds were repaired, although I was unable to return lost blood. Yes, repaired not healed. It's technically a rebuild since I just reversed the damage inflicted on the wound, not enhance the healing properties of the body temporarily. My project will be completed after a few more days. That's why I spent my time in the library finding and reading books about dueling. I recalled that there will be some sort of dueling club next year when Lockheart becomes our DADA professor, but I don't trust the man. So I will try to convince Professor Flitwick to take over the club by the end of the year. He was a Duelling champion after all, and he will be most suited for the role.
I also started to pay more attention to potions and herbology. The pain I felt when I fought Logan kept reminding me of how I was unprepared. The next time I overestimate myself, my life will most probably be the price. And I am not willing to make a bet with death.
Professor Sprout is a very competent teacher, and with some help from Neville, the class became easier for me. Although I don't know what to think of potions. I actually managed to revise the recipes for some potions that even improved the results, even a little. Professor Snape is still a douche towards the other students, mostly Gryffindor. And the most positive thing you will get from him is that he won't mock you, but he won't praise you either.
On the other side of things, my detention with Mr.Filch started a week ago, and he was very happy to have me as his personal helper. He made me scrub every nook and cranny of his room, helped him patrol the school during curfew, and just everything that Mr. Filch will do. I'm just lucky that I am doing detention during the night and not morning since I don't want to be a victim of the Weasley twin's pranks. I've dodged all of their traps, that's why I'm their favorite target aside from Mr. Filch.
My time with Logan was very fruitful too. I get to spend time with him trying to know all of the things that I can know from the Grim. I only know that they have insanely high damage resistance and their ability to blend in shadows, allowing him to travel to everything that has a shadow. It turns out, if he's in his giant wolf form, I can actually mount him while we run through the forest, although uncomfortably. When I tried to conjure a saddle though, he looked very offended at that. Saying that he was a familiar, not a mount. So I just used sticking charms on my arse and legs when I ride him. He was insanely fast when he runs, but it didn't make me uncomfortable. I don't know what, but there's some sort of invisible shield surrounding us when I am on his back, preventing the wind to blow on my face.
We tried hunting together inside the Forest to observe him and practice fighting together. We both actually found some fun in that, so we did it every few days as to not alert the residents there. Acromantulas sure are good practice targets since they run very fast and good at doing ambushes, but our teamwork was very effective since we were connected with each other. With telepathy being our way to communicate, we knew how each other will move and attack. Our synergy is very strong, with him ambushing enemies and taking the front while I am responsible for assisting him and throwing strong spells to enemies that approach us. However, we didn't push harder since we both know Aragog will be very pissed, so we hunted different creatures after attacking a good number of acromantulas. We also saw a few herds of unicorns and Thestrals, but we didn't approach them.
'It sure is different fighting monsters and fighting intelligent ones.' I said. It's true though. It took me all of my wits to fight Logan, but it only took a few magic spells when killing other monsters. The only toughest stupid monster we encountered was a troll, but we finished it earlier than I expected because its moves were very predictable. Although I constantly remind myself to never get cocky again. In case we confronted a very strong monster, Logan will escape with me using his shadow travel. It was quite overpowered since Logan can bypass Hogwarts' wards. Meaning, we can go inside and outside of the school without anyone noticing. I also started brewing simple healing potions in case of emergencies. Yes, there are a lot of potion ingredients inside the forest, so acquiring potions won't be hard anymore.
Inside the school, I already started to get ahead in class again. Hermione having a hard time trying to maintain the lead in our so-called rivalry. It's not like I care at all. she was the only one who takes things too seriously. I didn't even know there was some sort of contest going on. Cho and I also went back to normal after our confrontation. We sat beside each other again during the morning inside the great hall. She is very busy with her Quidditch training and I have things to do on my own, so we made sure to always talk to each other especially during evenings inside the common room. She even started telling me about some guy named Cedric Diggory, the shining start of Hufflepuff. Her team had a friendly match with Hufflepuffs, and she was very impressed because Cedric was a very skilled seeker.
I remembered that they became a couple in the books and movies. Honestly, he was a very good guy. It was just a bit disappointing that Rowling decided to kill him in the Triwizard Tournament. I even like his personality more than Harry. Well, I'm making sure to participate in the tournament for my own reasons, but I also aimed to at least save him from his fate. Hitting two birds with one stone.
It was during one of my detention with Filch where I found something interesting. Mr. Filch already considered my trustworthy enough to be let inside his office, so he made me clean it again while he and Mrs. Norris start their patrols on the school grounds. The map was already gone, stolen by the twins long before I even had my detention with Mr. Filch. But there's something I found in one of the boxes that contained confiscated things. Mr. Filch actually had a separate room just for storing them. I only found it when Mr. Finch trusted me enough to let me inside the storage room to clean. It was actually a treasure trove with different things dumped inside. Surprisingly, there's a love potion in one of the boxes, but I ignored it. That's one dangerous item. The most interesting I found is a silver ring with an intricate design. There was a small circle with letters I don't recognize engraved inside it, and that circle has figures surrounded the sphere which looked like crows. If anyone else was looking at it now, they will notice that the two raves and the circle formed into a shape of an eye. Just above the crows' heads were what looked like roots that spread into the entirety of the ring. At the end of each crow's beaks was the figure of the moon and sun. The magic inside when I observed with my Mage Sigh indicated that the ring is something mystifying since its color is as clear as water. I have never seen anything like that before. There's a bit of dark magic, but there are no traces of some sort of curses at all, so I put it on. I didn't even feel anything once I put it on, but I think the effect is subtle.
I quickly left the room and resumed cleaning Mr. Filch's room. When he returned, he immediately kicked me out of his office, so I just returned to my room. I'm sure Mr. Filch won't realize something was missing since that room has a lot of trash and different things stuffed inside.
I continued doing the same routine until I went with Logan to our usual hunt. When all of the students were all inside the dorms, I went inside the Room and made Logan transformed into his huge wolf form. I rode him and blended into the darkness. We rushed tot he forest and started our hunt. By now, the residents of the forest became alerted especially the monsters we usually hunt when we go out. When we hunt monsters, I always gather parts that I know were useful in potion brewing. All of them were inside of a hidden trunk inside the Room of Requirements. It will stay like that and not rot since the Room has magical properties that can store things without having them degraded. That's how even the books I picked up survived the passage of time no matter how long they were inside the Room.
Now, even the nocturnal monsters are very careful. Logan and I became quite notorious inside the forest. The sapient creatures knew we don't mean harm to them, but they stayed alert regardless.
Eventually, we found a trail and followed it. It led to a lone ogre roaming. What made ogres different from trolls is that ogres are more intelligent than trolls, but they're still stupid. They have basic knowledge like there are things that fall and fly, but that's the limit of their mind. They are stronger too since their hide is tougher than what trolls have.
Logan and I formed a plan on how we'll approach the ogre. We still have the element of surprise so we decided to ambush him.
We predicted its line of path before we waited for the ogre. When it was already near, I thought of bombarding it with spells before there was something that flashed in front of me. What I saw there was that there were actually acromantulas above us waiting for an ambush set up just for me. That made me hesitated a bit before I noticed the spiders above the trees. There were a lot of them and I immediately threw a spider repelling spell. Some of the spiders fell from the tree, attracting the ogre. Logan immediately went into offensive as I blasted the acromantulas. The ogre roared before charging to Logan, which he easily dodged. I, on the other hand, was busy blasting the spiders away. I noticed more shadows on the trees before noticing something.
'This is a trap.' I thought as Logan turned to me. He immediately ran towards me before we ran. Both the ogre and acromantulas chased us, with me blasting more of them. I cast a giant repelling spell before directing my wand to the running monsters and firing a Bombarda spell with my other hand. The ogre was rudely flung outside the group, crushing some of the acromantulas. The spiders stopped their pursuit before attacking the ogre themselves. The sight was horrifying because the ogre was being bitten to death. We quickly transported ourselves back into the Room. After that, we sneaked into the dorm straight to my room.
'That was very close' I said while panting. The adrenaline rush slowly stopped before the exhaustion caught up to my body. I laid myself on my bed before talking to Logan.
'It seems the monsters started to work together against us.' Logan inferred.
'Yeah. With how much we hunted them, they'll surely form some sort of alliance.' I groaned mentally.
I don't even know how I knew of the trap. I just saw something before the spiders started their attack. Then I turned to my silver ring. The design was in the shape of an eye, gleaming in the night.
'Could this be because of the ring?' I wondered. Then, an idea formed inside my mind.
'Logan, I thought of something.' I said before Logan cut me off.
'No need, I already read it. It sounds idiotic.' The wolf replied without moving on my bed.
'Come on, just let me try it. I think it's because of the ring. Remember when I told you about it when I found it in Mr.Filch's office?' I said. I just want to prove my theory, and if I turned out to be right then I just found a diamond in a pile of trash.
'Fine, just only once. If you're wrong, I'm not doing something like this again.' The wolf said as he stood up. He walked a few meters before facing me. Then he pounced on me, but nothing happened.
'Okay, I'm done.' Logan said and went back to sleep.
No, something's wrong. It definitely worked when we were inside the forest, but what was it that I was missing? I wondered before recalling the trap. Before they attacked, the flash showed me the spiders jumping on me. After a few moments of thinking, it struck me. That's right! The spiders intended to attack me, that's why the flash happened. Meanwhile, Logan did not intend on attacking me. That's why nothing happened.
'Logan! We need to do it again!' I eagerly woke him up.
'No, I'm tired. Let me sleep already.' He replied.
'Just one last time, please? If it didn't work I won't bother again.' I pleaded.
'Oh sure, I'll bite you if you're wasting my time.' The wolf complained but obeyed.
'Make sure to have the intent to really attack me. I think that's how this will work.' I reminded.
'No need to remind me. I'm doing it now.' The wolf stood in the same spot as before and pounced on me. He showed his sharp teeth that intended to bite my flesh.
Then, the familiar flash happened and I saw him in front of me. I quickly evaded and saw him landing on the other side of the bed.
'I told you, it worked!' I said with a tone of triumph.
'But your dodge sucked. You moved too much and too early. I could've changed my direction to bite you.' He argued.
'Well, I'm still working on that. That's why I'm forming a training plan for myself. The room can even make something that can help me with that.' I said as I laid down on my bed.
'I gained a lot today. I think I'll have to start my training schedule soon. My dueling sucks, and the only thing that saved me a lot of times my knowledge about spells.' I sighed before going to sleep.